Adventure Magazine Cover — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Silver Zone thousand head of cattle, provided there was water enough in the spring or lake for _ them. (2 _ They dropped off of the high ridge into a coulée that ran in the direction of the water. The coulée ran along the top of a bench which was covered with cedars, , and broken by other coulées and gulches. _ Suddenly the mid-afternoon stillness was broken by a high, shrill cry for-help. Dal urged old Spot to the top of the coulee.in the direction from which the cry had come and stopped to listen. He ‘heard nothing and started on, but within twenty feet he suddenly jerked old Spot back on his haunches as a man broke from the cover of another coulée and walked swiftly toward a dense clump of cedars. - The man kept his face carefully averted, so that he entirely failed to see Dal. He was about two hundred pounds in - weight, but not more than five feet six ~ inches in height. His legs were short and his arms long, and the shoulders powerful and sloping. As he walked he moved with an incredibly swift, rolling movement, neither swagger of the sea, nor roll of the range; but a method of locomotion peculiar to his own build.. Dal knew one man who answered that description in every detail—Bill Hasbrouck! CHAPTER III THE FOLKS AT SILVER ZONE OW Hasbrouck could have beaten him to that place, and what possible reason the man could have for being there were mysteries to Dal. But while he was specu- Jating on the matter his fingers were busy unbuckling his rifle. For once he regretted that his aversion to posing as a “‘bad-man”’ _ had caused him to give up carrying a six- ‘shooter. To let Hasbrouck know of his presence before he had his rifle ready to use would be to commit ‘suicide. As the gun came loose he yelled— “Hasbrouck!” The man jumped like a startled cdtasias and was out of sight in the cedars before Dal could snap his rifle to shoulder. He had not turned even when Dal yelled, but ‘there was no doubt of his identity. A moment later came the sound of his horse plunging into the coulée, and Dal knew that it would be futile to follow him. He won- My « a =. dered, but could not know, whether Has. brouck had in turn identified him. Finally he pushed on toward the coulée” & which Hasbrouck had ‘rushed out of. There were abrupt rock walls on either side a of it which explained why the manhad gone Dal heard a faint moaning, into it on foot. and slipping from his horse he climbed into “3 the coulée. garb of a prospector was crumpled up against a boulder. A man in the usual coarse At first Dal thought he 3 was unconscious, but as he stood over him = < = the fellow opened his eyes and groaned. — He was perhaps sixty years of age, and although he was dressed like a miner, and a . 2 ae a = 7S, . 5 “4 roca a, pick and shovel lay close by, there was an Se incongruous note somewhere. were long and delicate, and there were signs” of refinement and care instead of rugged — strength in his face. ‘“What’s the matter, friend?” Dal asked gently. - “My back,” the man groaned, brouck broke my back.” Dal stepped back in horror. He knew © that Hasbrouck with his terrific strength — could easily do such a terrible thing to ‘this | frail old man. “Listen,” he said. close around here?” “Yes—at Silver Zone Spring. The pain seemed to become unbearable, and the old man slipped into unconscious- e ness. “There’s nothin’ we can do, old boy,” e Dal said to Spot, “except hunt up that house, an’ see if we can find help. I’m afraid I'd kill him if I tried to carry him, an’ I know darn well you would you rough- gaited old pelican.” The spring was nearly a mile from where’ the old man had been hurt. As he rode up > to it Dal saw it was really an underground _ = stream gushing out of the side of a hill, spreading out in a sort of lake for perhaps a quarter of a mile, then sinking into. the earth again. On the east end of the — “Is there any house as a oe Fe a : erent ~ 2 ae FESS Bee 2 | ee wer oe ‘ His hands — 3 mas ; = PS x ‘ < é¢ ore —_— eS ¢ ta < -* — ae Vee » if 23a Df = Ls, = vee sa lake were a dozen or so tumbled-down % cabins. ently was inhabited. Dal slipped the ‘bridle from old Spot, and the thirsty horse | trotted eagerly to the water while Dal s walked toward the cabin. Ten feet from the door he stopped in One of them seemed to have — - = withstood the ravages of time, and appar-_ * re waihe ~ amazement, as he came face to face with SSPE (E(©) mn ebooks